Thanks to those of you who have reviewed! It's greatly appreciated, so keep 'em coming.
As always, anyone you recognize doesn't belong to me.
As soon as Booth pulled into Emma's driveway, the kids were out of the car and running towards the front door. The kids reached the front porch and began ringing the bell over and over again. Booth and Brennan arrived at the door just as it swung open.
"Hi, Mom!" Emma exclaimed.
"Hey, kids! Why don't you go inside? There are some cookies on the table," Mrs. McIntyre said.
The kids took off, and Booth and Brennan stepped inside the door.
"Nice to see you again, Agent Booth," Mrs. McIntyre said. He smiled.
"You too. I just wish it were under better circumstances," he replied. The woman turned to Brennan.
"Amelia McIntyre," she introduced herself.
"Temperance Brennan," Brennan replied, shaking her hand. "I thought you might want to meet the woman your daughter ran off to see."
"You're Booth's partner?" she asked.
"Yes," Brennan replied.
Parker and Emma reentered the room, each with a cookie in their hands.
"Mommy, I want to be a forensic artist when I get older," Emma said.
"You do?" Mrs. McIntyre asked.
"Yeah, it's really cool! Tempe's friend Angela showed me all about it," Emma said. Her mother smiled.
"Well, I want to hear all about it later, but right now why don't you say goodbye to Parker so Agent Booth can take him home?" she said.
"Thanks for taking me to the Jeffersonian labs, Parker. It was really fun," Emma said, walking over to Parker.
She leaned over and planted a small peck on the side of Parker's lips. Parker immediately looked disgusted and used his sleeve to dramatically wipe his mouth. Emma giggled, as did her mother, and Booth and Brennan shared a glace. Brennan had to will herself not to laugh at the irritated expression on her partner's face.
"Okay, it's time to go," Booth said quickly, reaching out for Parker.
"Bye," Parker said to Emma with the least amount of enthusiasm that he had used all day. He still looked grossed out but smiled slightly once his back was turned away from her.
Booth continued to look irritated and slightly mortified, and Brennan gently rubbed his arm in support as she continued to fight back a laugh. The ride home was filled with Parker eagerly gabbing to both his father and Brennan about his day with Angela and Hodgins. Booth didn't say much in response, and Brennan was very pleased with the positive impact his little science adventure seemed to be having on him.
Once they arrived home, Booth told Parker to go to his room. He did as he was told, knowing he was in trouble, and Booth joined Brennan in the kitchen to work on fixing dinner.
"How are you doing?" Brennan asked.
"He did all of that, not out of boredom, but to impress a girl," Booth said.
"It definitely seems that way," Brennan said.
"He's eight!" Booth exclaimed.
"Yes," Brennan smiled.
"Bones, what do I do?" Booth asked.
"What do you mean?" she replied.
"How do I punish him?" he asked, wanting her opinion.
"You're asking me?" Brennan asked. "For parenting advice?"
"Yeah," he said casually, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"Wouldn't that be similar to me asking you to go to the lab tomorrow to analyze the bones of our victim and determine how he was killed?" Brennan asked.
"I suppose that's a good point, but, Bones, I have no idea what to do here."
"You've never punished him before?" she asked.
"No," Booth said.
"Never?" she asked with a surprised tone of voice.
"I think…I took dessert away…once," Booth remembered.
"Really?" Brennan asked with disbelief. "That's it?"
"Well, in general, Parker's a good kid. He doesn't need much punishing. Plus, I only get him about ten days a month. He doesn't act out with me. When he does get punished, Rebecca's the one to enforce it," Booth said.
"I suppose that's logical," Brennan replied.
"Will he get in trouble at school for this?" Booth asked.
"I don't know. I never got in trouble in school," Brennan replied. "But does punishment at school negate the need for punishment at home?"
"Yet another good point. I know I can't just take away dessert, though. This wasn't a dessert-sized infraction. This was more of a dinner-sized offense," he said.
Brennan dropped the spoon she was holding and turned to stare at him in horror. "Booth, you can't take dinner away from him! He's a growing child! Skipping a meal can be very harmful at his age!" she exclaimed.
Booth chuckled. "I'm not going to forbid Parker from eating dinner, Bones. I was being metaphorical."
"Oh," she said. She wrinkled up her nose and went back to cooking.
"Also, you know, as I said earlier, I don't get him very often, so whatever I take away from him this weekend kinda punishes me, too," Booth said.
"It has to be done, though. Children need rules and boundaries, and those have to be established when they're young. If you don't acknowledge that his behavior was wrong, he'll be tempted to continue to rebel just to test your limitations," she said.
"Did you learn that from Supernanny?" he teased.
"I don't know what that means," she said. He leaned over and kissed her cheek.
"Nothing," he said. "And you're right." Booth began to leave the kitchen.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"To unplug the video game systems and move them to our room for the weekend," he said. "I think that's a fair punishment, right?" She flashed him a sympathetic smile and continued to fix dinner.
Dinner that night was mostly quiet. Parker could sense that his father was upset and didn't want to make it worse. Booth didn't want to lose his temper with Parker and chose to remain silent throughout the meal, and Brennan felt awkwardly caught in the middle.
"May I be excused?" Parker asked after he was finished.
"Sure, but don't go too far. We need to talk," Booth said.
"Okay," Parker nodded. He walked into the kitchen to put his plate in the sink and then walked into the living room.
Booth and Brennan continued to eat in silence and were soon met with a shriek coming from the living room. Parker ran back into the dining room.
"Where's my Wii?" he asked, panicked.
"In my room," Booth said calmly.
"Why?" Parker asked.
Brennan stood and picked up both of the remaining plates. She went into the kitchen to start the dishes and give father and son time to talk.
"Sit down, Parker," Booth said.
"Where are my games?" he asked again, sitting.
"I told you. They're in my room," he said.
"But why?" Parker asked.
"Because what you did today was wrong, and you need to understand that. You snuck away from your trip, which was very dangerous, and you lied to several people, including Tempe," Booth said.
"But Emma didn't believe me, and I've seen the museum before!" Parker protested.
"That may be true, but that's no excuse for what you did. People need to be able to trust you, Parker. Me, especially, and what you did today caused me, your teacher, and Tempe to question whether we can do that or not," Booth explained.
"What's that have to do with my game?" Parker asked.
"Well, for the rest of this weekend, you're not going to be allowed to play video games," Booth said.
"What?" Parker exclaimed.
"It's only two and a half days, Parker. We'll find fun stuff to do," Booth said.
"No Wii at all?" Parker asked.
"Not this weekend," Booth confirmed. Parker was silent for a moment as he processed the punishment.
"Tempe!" Parker shrieked, leaping out of the chair and running into the kitchen.
Booth followed his son into the kitchen and stood in the doorway while Parker ran over to Brennan.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Daddy took my video games for the whole weekend! Make him give them back!" he exclaimed.
Brennan glanced up at Booth and saw that he had a 'what'd-I-tell-you?' look on his face.
"Parker, I know that seems harsh, but I'm sorry. I can't make him take it back," she said calmly.
"Why not?" Parker protested.
"Because he's your father, and I can't overrule him in this situation," she explained. Parker looked up at her with sad eyes.
"But, Tempe, he's being mean!" Parker exclaimed.
Brennan looked up at Booth, her eyes silently pleading for help. He met her gaze and realized that she was about to crack.
"Parker, that's enough," Booth said. "Go to your room and get ready for bed, please." Parker looked disappointed.
"Fine," he said and walked off.
Several hours later, Booth and Brennan were getting ready for bed. He had said goodnight to Parker hours ago and was looking forward to sleeping with Brennan in his arms and putting this whole day behind him. Booth stood at his dresser, setting an alarm for morning, when he felt Brennan's arms wrap around him from behind.
She squeezed his body gently before pulling her arms back to tightly hold onto his sides. She maneuvered her body onto her tiptoes to even out their heights. Brennan kissed the skin behind his right ear gently and sucked on his ear lobe for a moment before positioning her lips to whisper to him.
"Good job earlier," she said in a hushed voice.
He turned in her arms to face her and saw that she was wearing a men's flannel, button-down shirt and tiny pajama shorts. He let his hands brush against her hips and the sides of her thighs as he looked into her beautiful blue eyes.
"What do you mean?" he asked her.
"With Parker," she clarified. "He's been so quiet all evening. I guess I expected yelling or…something. I don't really know, since I don't know much about children, but I always assumed that punishment usually stimulated more disputing than it did tonight."
"Hey, Bones, I showed him who's boss, alright? He knew better than to fight me," Booth said with pride.
She rolled her eyes playfully. "Whatever you did, it worked."
Brennan leaned her head up and kissed him deeply. She then removed herself from his arms and climbed into bed, pulling the covers up to her waist as she sat against the pillows, waiting for him to join her. Booth finished getting ready quickly and walked over to the bed. He paused before crawling under the covers.
"What is it?" Brennan asked.
"Just…what you said a few minutes ago. He has been really quiet," Booth said.
"You showed him who's boss, remember?" she said in a teasing tone.
"Or he didn't really listen to me," Booth suggested.
"How is that a possibility? His video game system is right there," she said, pointing to their table.
"He's got a DS," Booth informed her.
"I don't know what that means," she said. He smiled.
"It's a handheld game system. He could play it anywhere from the car to his bedroom," Booth said.
"Oh," she replied.
"I'll be right back," Booth said, heading for Parker's room.
Up Next: Parker returns to Rebecca's house, and Angela and Hodgins talk some more about having a baby.
Alright, so I'm a bit worried that this story is kinda boring. I thought it'd be interesting to write something about the father side of Booth since they never show that side of him on the show. So please leave a review and tell me what you think!